xxbydesign

The same thing happens with my farms. In my experience, I think it stems from zoning odd shaped farm lots, as I can see you do as well. When I zone my lots, I zone smaller rectangles over one another, overlapping zones until I have the shape I want. My guess is that these smaller lots, which don't always touch a road, might be read by the program as not having road access, even though they have been developed as an incorporated whole. I find that if I drag a road over the existing road after the zot appears, the problem goes away in a couple months. But it is annoying!

I think this is an excellent idea because it's not a "new" one. Maxis provided a few w2w residential options, but not many, and if given the choice the game engine prefers to build towers, but a lot, A LOT of cities have relatively "low" residential neighborhoods. I would love to see a range of styles for rowhouses assigned to different stylesets so you can viusally tell when different rowhouses were built. Keep up the great work! @Spike345: Corner properties with overhanging bays/window boxes would be a great addition. Unfortunately I do not know if there is any way to restrict a particular building to only developing on corner lots. Does the game system recognize when a model is only intended for use in zones with two sides adjacent to a road? And wouldn't the bay window be a part of the buidling model and not be allowed to overhang the lot? I'm very new to modeling and would maybe like to add my own creations to this thread. Any assistance would be welcome.

I recently tried to download a couple fo NHP's fantastic maps from the STEX, but when I try to render them in SC4 Terraformer, it always errors at the same step. In the readme with the file, I am supposed to use the Global Tools button to Import Image, that is the .SC4M file that came with the zip folder (it is, at this point, already extracted). Every time I try to Import Image, it says that it is not a valid image file. What is happening here? The map comes from a reliable source (NHP + Simtropolis) and recieves great reviews, meaning it is working for other players. What am I doing wrong? Do I need an updated version of SC4Terraformer? Am I missing a step? I searched the Omnibus and all I could find was the same walkthrough I get in the attached readme files in my download. I would appreciate some help with this. Thank you in advance.

I checked the version of SC4TF I had installed and found that it was not the most current version. I uninstalled my copy, downloaded SC4TF v1.1 (which is the current version), and reinstalled the newer software. The program now works exactly as described and I am very happy to be able to use the many great maps avaliable on the stex. Thank you everyone for your comments and assistance. If necessary, this thread can now be removed. Thank you again.

Do both; widen the road for more dense commercial development on the strip, but provide a grid of small steets for local traffic and to establish better boundaries between residential and commercial development.

Sorry about creating this thread in the wrong forum; thank you tungston for moving it appropriately. SC4BOY: The config file is in place (and is of my own editing, which I ahve done successfully in the past). The readme says to create a folder in my Regions folder with the config inside it. It then says to open the region folder from SC4Terraformer, which always opens the folder successfuly and I get a blank region with my desired city tiles in place thanks to my custom config. However, upon trying to import the image in Global Tools, I am met with a message that says the downloaded file is invalid. Question: does the .SC4M file need to be in the same created region file with the config? yunxiang: I will look to see what version of SC4Terraformer I have installed. If there is an update page I would appreciate the link. Also, I do not have SC4Mapper as a program on my computer. Is this causing the error? The readme does not specify if one or both programs would suffice to instal a map. Thank you for your feedback and assistance. Hopefuly with you help I can get this to work. Thanks again!

Check the Omnibus; you're bound to find some help/ideas there.

I noticed that too, Jumpthefence; I was hoping it was a joke... but i guess not. Jumpthefence is correct too in that the age of your sims matters a great deal. Only place those schools that will benefit the population they will ultimately serve (that which is within the orange service ring). If they are mostly R$, they will need elementary schools; once built, it will not take long for R$$ and C$$ and I$$ to move into town. R$$ needs continuing education, hence the high schools, which will attract $$$ residents, buisnesses, and industry. Libraries and Museums are like support systems, so to speak, and will boost what the schools already provide. This is what I have garnered from playing the game. Hope it helps!

why don't you just zone larger lots?? Hold down +ctrl while zoning and it wont subdivide the lot. Also, you could always try purposefully leaving space between zones. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but it seems like modding is the harder solution.

Hey everyone, I've been playing SimCity 4 for a very long time now and really enjoy the game and all the custom content provided here at Simtropolis. However, there is one thing in particular that has always puzzled/irritated me. With a young city, you often get a lot of Commercial Service buidlings, the kinds fo places that sell food, gas, goods, etc. But as the city grows up, Commercial Office buildings take their place, and no new CS develops because all the commercial space is now CO. I was wondering if, without radically changing taxes every month, if there was some way to create two different types of commercial zones that allow for either CS development and CO development, rather than the two overlapping. Realistically, youc an't have NO services in a city and nothing but offices. There need to be shops near houses and not just offices; this is what makes a working city in real life. I was just wondering if this could be done, or if this would be a restructuring of the entire game and therefore impossible. Thanks for you time, and look foward to replies.

First of all, welcome to Simtropolis! Ok, on to buisness: What is a PSB? I've been playing for upwards of five years now and I've never heard that before. Anyway, the simplest explaination I can gather is that the deal was canceled without you deciding to cancel it. Sometimes that happens when one city grows too much that it excedes the capacity of the other town. But, since you say you increase the supply, I dont think this is the case, but its worth a double take. The next thing I would say is to re-check all your neighbor connections: make sure any recent alterations to your utilities did not accidentally break the connection. The last thing I would consider is just that the deal was cancelled on its own because of a price change; your advisors will warn you from time to time that the "other" mayor is thinking of changing the cost for services; ive had this happen when they simply stop the deal, too. Just re-start the deal when this happens, but my advice would be to try to home-grow your supply; I've never had any trouble in doing this, even in my largest of cities. Good luck!

You might simply have also hit a development cap without realizing it. Place some more parks to alleviate Residential development caps and increase your transit neighbor connections to alleviate commercial and industrial demand. This should encourage new growth, which means younger people

Oh, i want to offer a few more tips on zoning. If you are zoning, say, a 1x3 residential lot, and say that you are zoning along a street, the game will automatically orient it along the street; but this means you will have three, 1x1 lots, and this is not what you wanted. If you hold down the -alt- key after zoning the lot, but without releasing the mouse key, the game will reorient the lot frontage and find an 'alternative' street for the lot to face. But, say, that you did want a 1x3 lot that faced the road lengthwise. With the zone still oriented toward the long street, holding down -ctrl- will erase the automatic boundarylines between the zones and you will have a 1x3 zone oriented toward the longer street. I would suggest erasing your 1x1 zones with the dezoning tool (shortcut key 'v') and replacing them with reoriented 1x3 zones so they will develop.

Welcome to Simtropolis. The problem is that you have not enough population to make that kind of dense development possible. Even though you have zoned the lots as low-density, the reality is that a 1x1 lot is more dense than a 1x2, 1x3, 2x2, and so on; in fact you could argue it is the most dense lot in the game. The other houses in the area are housing families on twice the amount of land that you want to develop. Before a lot will develop at a higher density, or 'stage', the city must first pass particular population thresholds and provide the right amenities to relieve a demand cap. Your task is quite simple; zone more 1x2 residential lots in other parts of the city (i see you still have plenty of room). Once your population rises, say, above 1,000, those 1x1 lots should be able to develop at a higher density and will fill up. Good luck!

I've long used SimCity as a tool in my thoughts/explorations concerning architecture, planning, and healthy societies; I'd be interested in participating.

R$ is not picky. They're desirability maps is usually all green, no matter how bad the crime/pollution/education/health is. My guess is you just need to zone the cr*p out of Residential until your R$ demand starts to be met, and you will find there are plenty of jobs there for more residents.

A lot has to do with the wealth levels, like youve stated. My guess is you have unmet wealthy and middle class residential demand, so all you ever zone will fill with $$$ and $$ without giving $ a chance. Low-wealth sims are the most likely to work for agriculture and Dirty industry; I've developed many cities where the two co-exist and develop simultaneously. As long as the workers are there, AND THEY CAN GET THERE EASY ENOUGH, the demand will be there and the residents will commute. Raise taxes on the wealthy and zone closer R zones near the industry, and you should start to see more people working for Dirty industry.

well no wonder the roads are jammed; they're too long! I like the farming layout, and am amazed you haven't had a single 'Pumpkin Acres'; I can't get rid of those things!! Is there a mod u use to block that maxis building?? Anyway, looking great